Student project blog exploring the themes of anxiety and how it can be understood and portrayed through symbolism.
Semester 2 project at Duncan and Jordanstone college of art.

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Development - SD card issues and redo of social anxiety shoot

Since the first Photo shoot which is here I wanted to recreate the same image and mood again but with the better know how and skills. During the second attempt for this Photo shoot my camera's SD card ran into some trouble and I nearly lost everything I have taken up until this point. Which was all my photography, development process and small film footage clips.

Luckily found some software called 'Card recovery' and it allowed me to recover most of the files back some have been damaged but least I got the most important ones back. I'm not even sure what happened to my SD card and as far as I know I didn't change the settings or anything on it to change it. It had to be formatted completely and just hope the problem will be fixed for the future. Also has taught me to back up all my work more often and that their is software to help with that.

But yes I pushed a lot further for the redo of the first image of social anxiety and collected a lot more props to get the better mood I wanted. Even painting around the chair to emphasize the negative energy of the figure that will be sitting there. That they have their own negative feelings and their projecting into the space around them which is susposed to be a positive environment.

Prop Making

Just got some A3 paper and trimmed it using a guillotine and painted with black acrylic paint with a roller and a paint brush. Then stuck the paper together using strips of tape a bit rough but it let me fold the paper up to be easier to carry.

For the new studio space I wanted to try out the production studio I've been finding it a lot better to use for more dramatic shoots especially ones that use softer lighting. It's been good practice with backgrounds as well experimenting with different lighting and tones. It also gave me more practice with a tripod which had some trouble getting the camera on it. After looking at it further the editing suite team had to fix it for me cause someone had gotten something on the screw and it made it stuck.

I got the lovely Charlie to be my model again and I found the new space and backdrop worked a lot better with the fabric and the painted paper around the chair. It made it a lot easier to edit and take away the edges of the paper.

Test shots with props

Wanted to get some practice shots in first before bringing in any props and to get the model more comfortable. I had a better idea of exactly what I wanted to portray the mood and body language of the figure. This led to some more experimentation with the fabric and props which in the end worked out very well.

I started to bring in balloons which are associated with a happy celebration and their colors were a high contrast against the black fabric and figure. Started to bring in each prop in and to try different body language to set the negative tones better. The lighting for these shots was also with the light boxes and their was some adjustments to make them a lot softer.

Image meaning and digital editing

These shots were cropped in Photoshop and edited to create a higher contrast and a better idea of what the end result would be like. Wanted the back fabric to blend in with the paint around the model to create an effect as if her anxiety and emotions are dripping from her in a sense and downwards to add a subconscious image of sadness.

Some close up shots of the wine glass which has blue ink inside and to add again another subconscious attempt of the negative imagery. As well as another prop to suggest alcohol which is symbol associated with being merry but the model seems uncomfortable holding the glass. Like it is a type of poison and she could be using it to forget herself and the surroundings which is the other side of drinking. Her body language is also very introverted and her arms are creating a cross image that is yet again another negative symbol to suggest she is unavailable and closed off from contact.

I then brought in the rotating disco ball light with all of the other lighting switched it off and I feel very pleased with the result. It seems to add the final touch of atmosphere I wanted to portray for the social anxiety image. We tried different positions of the ball to get different points of color and light. Charlie suggested we try it under the chair which worked well to create a silhouette of her form.

Selection of Final Images

The pictures start to be cropped and edited from this point on and I feel positive about the results. Some of these images will be used for the final pieces and final results of this photo shoot.